Just Them
by comesinwaves
Summary: In the midst of their busy, crazy lives, Troy and Gabriella find time to be just them.


**Just Them**

'Where are we going Troy!' Gabriella giggled, 'This is silly!'

Her boyfriend ahead of her chose not to say anything and instead continued to weave precariously through the dark.

'Come on!' Gabriella begged, 'Tell me where we're going! Please?'

'It wouldn't be much of a surprise then would it?' Troy shot back sarcastically.

'You can surprise me now?' Gabriella replied hopefully.

Her boyfriend clamped up again and Gabriella harrumphed noisily.

This was getting ridiculous. It was absolutely beyond her guess where they were now, trampling through the dark in the middle of the night.

He had shown up at her apartment mere hours prior, giddy and bouncy, his eyes sparkling mischievously.

'What do you want Troy…' she said wearily as she had opened the apartment door. She had just begun an essay for law school, a very taxing and hard essay. And here he was at a ridiculous hour with a mad look in his eyes. She knew that look. That look had never meant good things in her experience with him. It usually meant that she was going to be roped into something ridiculous, potentially even illegal when he had that look on his face.

'Hey Gabs!' Troy exclaimed, stepping past her into the apartment, only pausing to kiss her cheek briefly, 'How was your day?'

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, following his path around her apartment carefully, 'It was good…wait Troy what are you doing?'

Her hyperactive Hollywood-heartthrob boyfriend disappeared into her bedroom and began noisily clanging around.

'Troy!' she shrieked.

Troy's head appeared back in her view as he swung his head out to look at her. He grinned again and brought one finger up to his lips, 'Sssshhh…' he said softly.

'Ok…' Gabriella agreed with muted tones.

He resumed his noise making and Gabriella rolled her eyes. She followed him into her bedroom, where she found him rummaging through her closet, half of her shoe collection already lying scattered on the floor.

'What are you _doing!_' Gabriella cried, 'Stop it!'

Troy beamed boyishly at her from his spot on the floor. He gently pushed at her knees, causing her to topple onto the bed. Immediately Gabriella stood up, bristling with indignation.

'Troy! You're destroying my bedroom!' she scolded.

'Sit back down Gabi!' Troy insisted, 'Sit back down!'

'You're destroying my…'

'I'll put it all back once I'm done ok?' Troy promised earnestly, finally calming down enough to put a full sentence together, 'Please, just sit down,'

Uneasily, her eyes still narrowed, Gabriella lowered herself to the bed, waiting patiently for his next move.

'Legs out,' Troy demanded, swivelling to face her.

Gabriella wrinkled her nose, 'Troy…'

Troy arched his eyebrows at her and she conceded, sticking her bare feet out at him.

'Now what?' she demanded.

He shook his head, smiling, before sliding her foot into an Ugg boot that had been viciously discarded.

She frowned at him, while he switched to the other foot, 'I don't even want to know what you think you're doing…'

He chuckled quietly, straightening himself upright. He grasped her hands gently, easing her to her feet.

She looked at him curiously, 'I don't think I'll ever understand you, you know?'

Troy smiled proudly, 'You don't need to!'

With that he dragged her from her bedroom and back into the living room. He wrenched her coat from its hook by the door, and helped her into it, before buttoning it up tightly.

'I can dress myself,' Gabriella rolled her eyes, exasperatedly, 'If you'd tell me what's going on.'

'I know…but, if I told you what we were doing it would wreck my super-secret operation. We would be compromised,'

'Are you being a spy again?' Gabriella questioned, 'Please tell me you're not being a spy.'

'Secret agent,' Troy corrected winningly, 'They're very different things,'

Troy moved up her body, binding her neck tightly in a scarf.

'Are you trying to suffocate me? Is that your secret plan?' Gabriella gasped, tugging at the scarf.

Troy had the grace to look sheepish and quickly loosened the material. He then turned to the hook one last time, wrenching a hat from it. He placed it atop her messy ponytail before stepping back, admiring his handiwork proudly.

'Voila!' he announced.

Gabriella groaned, rolling her eyes, 'Are you going to explain this to me?'

'Sssshhh…' Troy insisted, crouching low, 'We'll talk later. We have to move,'

He grabbed her hand again, pulling her through her apartment door, 'We have to keep quite ok?'

Gabriella shook her head, deciding to play along with him for the mean time, 'Ok…'

As they snuck down into the basement Gabriella had to bite back a giggle. They crept into the parking lot, straight into an awaiting car. The first bright bulbs of the paparazzi struck up and instinctively both Troy and herself ducked their heads to shield themselves.

What followed was a complicated maze of underground parking lots, black sedans and a pair of people that Gabriella saw out of the corner of her eye that looked suspiciously like them.

And now they were here. Their hands were clasped tightly forming a human safety chain as they walked. Troy, ever the limber mountain goat was in the lead, tossing back warnings for imminent rocks and logs every minute or so. Gabriella had well and truly succumbed to her boyfriend's craziness, choosing to follow rather than fight after their third car change.

Now it was silent. Silence was a rarity in the lives they led, particularly when she was with Troy. Noise and people just seemed to come with the job.

It was pitch black and she found herself hyperaware of everything around her. Twigs crackled noisily under their feet as they trampled along, shattering the still silence. The only other thing she could hear was the sound of Troy's deep breaths, forming clouds of condensation in the chilly, night-time air. She could feel Troy's hand, large and calloused, encased tightly in hers.

Her boyfriend squeezed her hand tightly, 'Big rock,'

Uneasily, Gabriella winced, slowly padding her way toward Troy's voice. Rock. Rock. Rock. Rock. Where was the rock?

She squeaked suddenly as she stumbled on the rock. Troy's hands flew to her waist instantly, steadying her. His lips pressed into her hair tenderly and they resumed walking again.

Her boyfriend was a relatively intelligent person. He could memorize the lines for his blockbuster movies, he could feed the entire world heart felt public service announcements and he could talk his way out of a scandal. He had a perfectly capable brain.

But in this moment, Gabriella wasn't so sure. Maybe he had taken one too many basketballs to the head in high school or maybe La La Land truly was getting to him. Because…a relatively intelligent, non-brain dead person would have enough sense to bring a flashlight!

Gabriella stumbled again on a patch of uneven ground, righting herself before overprotective Troy swooped in again.

'Please tell me where we're going?' she begged, 'I need to know! It'll make this broken ankle worth it,'

Troy chuckled, 'You're funny Gabs. Really,'

'Do I get an answer!'

'No…'

Gabriella growled, only gaining another laugh from Troy.

'Ledge,' Troy called, '_Big _ledge,'

He turned, holding both of her hands to ease her up over the ledge. Gabriella wrinkled her nose again.

'How come you're not breaking any bones?' she accused, 'Why am I the only one whose going to be in the emergency room when we're done here?'

'I've been here before,' Troy tossed back casually, 'I know this path,'

'Of course you do. I'm going to break my neck and you're going to keep knowing this path,'

Troy abruptly stopped dead in his tracks causing Gabriella to fall into his hard back.

'What the hell!' she cried, 'You want me to break my nose too!'

Troy laughed softly, pressing a kiss to her forehead, 'Just trust me Gabs. We're almost there,'

His hands appeared at her waist, hoisting her off the ground. Gently he carried her over another large step up and placed her on the ground.

'Watch out for the bushes… we're seriously almost there,'

Gingerly Gabriella, led by Troy, pushed her way through a thicket of bushes.

'So what is this…'

Her breath stopped short in her throat, as she emerged on the other side.

Candles. Candles of every shape and size filled the clearing in which she stood. The flames flickered and danced, against the shadows beyond, lighting up every crevice. And then…

The clearing fell away to a cliff, revealing an endless, sparkling velvet ocean, quiet and still.

'Troy this is…' she murmured, 'This is…beautiful.'

Troy stepped away from her, releasing her hand, 'You think so?'

His eyes were open, uncharacteristically vulnerable and raw and Gabriella's heart went out to him, 'I do. It's so beautiful…'

'I needed to do something,' he said quietly, '_We _needed to do something. It feels like forever since I've really seen you,'

She smiled softly, 'Well this is perfect…'

'Wait, wait…' Troy ordered, 'Have a look at this,'

He crossed to the other side of the clearing, rummaging behind a tree. He emerged again holding out a picnic basket victoriously.

'Hungry?'

Gabriella laughed, 'Well…after that hike,'

Troy beamed, pulling a rug from the picnic blanket. He shook it out, setting it close to the edge of the cliff, before beckoning her over.

Gabriella didn't hesitate to comply, striding straight into his embrace. He hugged her close, before releasing her to look in the picnic basket again.

'So…we have some some champagne and some chocolate covered strawberries,' Troy said proudly, brandishing the items at her.

'We have quite a feast,' Gabriella remarked.

'And…we have chocolate covered strawberries!'

Gabriella's grin widened, and she swore her heart positively melted. He remembered, even after all this time.

'So, dig in,' Troy announced.

As Troy fed her the strawberries luxuriously, conversation flowed between them easily. For once they weren't interrupted, or yelled at, or conscious of who was listening. For once there weren't giggling teenagers asking for autographs, or perverted paparazzi asking Troy if he'd had sex the night before. They could just talk…

'So I was thinking about this new job that I was offered…' he said, in between mouthfuls of pizza, 'And I've decided that I'm not going to take it unless I can talk to the directors about some changes…it doesn't sit well with me,'

'Good,' Gabriella nodded, still chewing her own slice, 'You shouldn't do something you're not happy with,'

Troy smiled, 'I knew you'd say that,'

Before they knew it, the pizza box was empty and there were no strawberries left. They sat, curled up in one another, a flannel blanket draped around their shoulders, as they watched the moon's perfect imitation in the ocean, passing the champagne bottle around.

'Hmmm…' Gabriella sighed peacefully, 'This was perfect,'

Troy swigged from the bottle, before passing it back to her, 'It was…wasn't it?'

Gabriella nodded, letting her head fall against his shoulder gently.

Troy curled his arms around her tighter and began to sing softly in her ear, rocking them back and forth.

His sweet voice danced over the lyrics of the song, lulling and entrancing her all together. She cocked her head curiously so she could see him while he sang.

His face was relaxed, unusually blissful and unguarded. His eyes had slid shut and his lips were curved up in an involuntary smile.

And suddenly she understood. She understood why she was here, in the dead of the night, in the middle of winter, when she could be curled up in her own bed instead. She understood why she was drinking champagne, listening to the ocean when she should have been studying.

She smiled, her heart soaring with gratitude. She reached up, pressing her lips to his, hoping to make him understood just how she was feeling.

She understood because here, they were them. Away from the sharp, prying eyes of the paparazzi and the openly critical voices of the public, they were just them. Just Troy and Gabriella not Troy Bolton and "Bolton's Babe". They were Troy and Gabriella, the couple who met in high school bonding over hot chocolate and cheesy karaoke. They were the couple who ate Chinese food and danced shamelessly to bad eighties music in college. Here, Troy was not the Hollywood Heartthrob instead he was the boy who was passionate and intense, the boy from Albuquerque who loved basketball and strawberry Poptarts. He was the boy who loved his Sunday mornings to be spent curled in bed with her, who would go to the ends of the earth to make her happy. He was the boy who had stolen her heart.

_And as we drank our wine and let the world fade away  
The sunrise tried to end it while we tried to stay  
The rest of my life can't compare to this night_

_- Joshua Radin_

* * *

**So there we go. My contribution to Valentine's fanfiction. Please, reviews are the best Valentine's you can send writers! We live off them!**


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